During the preparations for the 2018 summit with President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump preferred to watch a football match instead of discussing the agenda of the negotiations. This was stated by former US national security adviser John Bolton in an interview with the Financial Times, BTA reports.
According to him, Trump often approached international meetings without the necessary prior preparation.
“He rarely does any preparatory work“, Bolton says, specifying that even on the eve of the Helsinki meeting in 2018, the American leader preferred to watch a sports broadcast instead of discussing key topics such as nuclear weapons.
Former diplomat Eric Rubin also commented to the publication that there are no specialists left in Trump's entourage capable of giving him competent advice on Russia and Ukraine. According to the FT, during Trump's second term, many experts on these topics left the civil service as a result of layoffs and resignations, which reduced the level of preparation of the administration for international negotiations.
Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump will meet on August 15 at the Elmendorf-Richardson Joint Base in Anchorage, Alaska. Despite the White House's attempts to avoid hosting the Russian delegation at a military facility, the location was chosen because it meets the necessary security and logistical requirements.